The World Bank is the Scandal, Not Wolfowitz

Comments

Stephen your timing is spot on. On May 21st I sent this to the SMH and ABC: “The interview with Chris Hitchens last Friday on Lateline was the only program I am aware of in Australia which went some way to set the record straight about the World Bank’s railroading of Wolfowitz. Unfortunately the overwhelming number of journalists repeated the World Bank propaganda verbatim, effectivley becoming outsourced mouthpieces for the institution. The ABC’s Kim Landers, the Times’ Tim Reid, The Australian’s Geoff Elliott, AFP and Reuters, the New York Times, have all referred to Shaha Riza as the ‘girlfriend’ and presented the story as if the version of events presented by the World Bank officials (and the exceptionally vicious employees union) was truthful. Hence Wolfowitz was always presumed guilty, even though the Wall Street Journal and Chris Hitchens had published detailed rebuttals of the World Bank accusations. It has been a shameful dereliction of the journalists’ duty to be the fourth estate. Not only has the press been complicit in the injustice against Wolfowitz, it has been complicit in keeping the real scandal under wraps, which is the World Bank itself. The real story has gone missing while the journalists have become collaborators (and I do mean that in the sense it was used during wartime occupations). Even though I count some journalists as friends, I feel a deep sense of shame for the profession.”

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 05/22 at 04:14 PM

Nice letter. Since Australia is a shareholder in the Bank, you would think there would be at least some concern with whether our contribution to the Bank’s capital was well spent.